A Conversation with Smaug The Magnificent. . . should be as thrilling (and more grand) in its way as Riddles in The Dark

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For one, I hope the psychic through the Ring way that Bilbo hears the spiders is not used for the Smaug communication. The Dragon is savvy, cunning and a master conversationalist, and I would be appalled if the suggestion is made that the only reason Bilbo can communicate with him is because he is wearing the Ring.

That said, if Smaug does speak properly.. . that the scene should be spectacular, and should receive all the time that Gollum received in An Unexpected Journey. Smaug IS magnificent, eloquent, grandiose, and extremely clever (almost brilliant) in his insight, deductions and persuasion. . . he commentary to Bilbo concerning the duplicity and avarice of dwarves is exquisite, and I would be most dissapointed if it does not make it in. The suave and sinister conversation of Smaug should stand out as a great moment in film history, and I hope it is done all the justice it deserves. "Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"

"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

I for one cannot wait to see/hear my favorite dragon played by my favorite actor! I'm giddy with anticipation! And there's still a year to do before we get his Magnificence on screen! BC said he studied Komodo dragons in order to get their mannerisms. I can only imagine! And I'm really curious as to how he is going to converse with Bilbo. I imagine it's a mind-to-mind thing. I would be horrified if he actually moved his lips! (Gahhh! Please, no!) But I have faith that PJ & crew will give us something quite memorable. One way or the other (LOL). "Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)

And I hope he doesn't make the movements TOO lizardic. Smaug isn't a lizard, scoffs at the notion. He is very warm blooded for one. lol.

As to the mind thing. . . I don't know. I think it would be awful if people thought the only reason Bilbo could "hear" Smaug was because of the Ring and mind melding.

The Dragons of Middle-Earth talk. Period. And Smaug seemingly LOVES to talk and is fairly fond of the sound of his own voice. In any event, he need not move his lips to speak. Birds manage it well enough, and they don't even have lips. "Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"

"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

Like how Bilbo actually wanted to confess everything to Smaug
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Smaug is cunning ... playing with Bilbo's mind asking how he expected to get the treasure all the way back home etc, it should be an iconic scene and even make the audience start second guessing the dwarves.

Smaug plays it so mesmerizingly and with near genius. Questions about packaging, shipping, guards on the road, the tolls!!! All these things the naive hobbit never considered, made all the more suspicious in the Hobbit's mind because the dwarves never really mentioned half of them. Smaug is a master mind shagger! And I hope we get every excellent second of it.

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Smaug is cunning... playing with Bilbo's mind asking how he expected to get the treasure all the way back home etc, it should be an iconic scene and even make the audience start second guessing the dwarves.

"Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"

"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

And I think it should be the climax of DoS - as I think the Battle for Dol Guldur will happen at the end of DoS as well, I would really love this intercut between a "battle" (although I think this will not be a conventional battle, rather a man on man battle of our known characters and possibly some animals) and this thrilling conversation.

This already worked nicely with Helm's Deep and Osgiliath - just that Smaug and Erebor are a bit more exciting than the Nazgul and the ruins, I think ;)

Smaug is a fascinating character, and also shapes Bilbo's experiences like Gollum and the finding of the ring.

In fact, it's another case where Bilbo's education and just plain being a hobbit adds value to the whole experience of talking with Smaug. None of the dwarves could have handled talking with the dragon, and his conversation provided useful information that is put to good use.

Smaug isn't just a furnace with wings, he has good eyesight; great hearing; and an excellent sense of smell. The ring gives Bilbo a little bit of an advantage in being able to talk without being incinerated, but this is also the classic Tolkien dragon. Smaug's predecessor, Glaurung, had a similar tendency to talk a lot.

in, i think it is February issue of Empire there is a bit about DoS and this is what Benedict said about Smaug

“We weren’t in the same room together. If Martin had been there, I would have wanted to play off him, but there are size issues. Smaug is bigger than the hobbit – I think I can say that!

This isn’t the riddles scene. It’s slightly different, it’s intricate. Smaug doesn’t engage with the Hobbit the same way as Smeagol does. Smeagol gets drawn in, whereas Smaug is on much more of an ego trip. He likes to feel dominant at all times, and because of what he’s capable of, he is.”

You can read the rest here"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something."

Is a skilled actor. He'll make it work with line delivery regardless of what it looks like. I can already see threads about how some will think it looked bad, and the majority will simply enjoy the scene.

DOS ended with Smaug going to Laketown in a fury, while the dwarves still think he's hanging around. And as well with the battle at Dol Guldor. I always thought that the point when Smaug leaves is a good breaking point. Then TABA would start with him attacking Laketown.

There are other movies where they tried to have talking dragons (Dragonheart, Eragon) and it just didn't work. So either they have some new wonder CGI that will make this better, or it will be a mind meld of some sort. I just want it to be awesome! In fact, it must be awesome! No expectations or anything.

That's how I want the scene with Smaug to play out. Smaug is magnificent, so they should show his magnificence. That's what I'm looking most forward to about the movie, is the big reveal of Smaug. It must be spectacular.